Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house Stuff Works dot com
Speaker 1: where smart happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question,
Speaker 1: is there any way to see satellites that are in orbit?
Speaker 1: If you are a neighbor has a satellite dish sitting
Speaker 1: in the yard to pick up television signals, then you
Speaker 1: know where at least one orbiting satellite is located. The
Speaker 1: dish is pointed right at it. TV satellites unfortunately live
Speaker 1: in geosecretous orbits approximately twenty two thousand miles away, so
Speaker 1: it's impossible to see them unless you have a really
Speaker 1: big telescope. However, there are lots of satellites that pass
Speaker 1: overhead in a syncretous orbits, and there are only two
Speaker 1: hundred or three hundred miles away. If you live in
Speaker 1: a place that has a very clear sky where for example,
Speaker 1: you can see the Milky Way at night, simply lie
Speaker 1: on your back on a moonless night and look carefully.
Speaker 1: Occasionally you'll see something that looks like a star, but
Speaker 1: it's moving. That's a satellite. This technique works especially well
Speaker 1: on a boat in the Caribbean close to the equator.
Speaker 1: The International Space Station is so large that it's extremely
Speaker 1: easy to see. You just need to know when to look.
Speaker 1: There are many satellite tracking sites on the web that
Speaker 1: will tell you when and where to look. Jump into
Speaker 1: Google and you can find them for more on this
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Does that how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com and don't forget to check out the brain
Speaker 1: stuff blog on the house stuff Works dot com home page.
Speaker 1: You can also follow brain stuff on Facebook or Twitter
Speaker 1: at brain stuff HSW. The House Stuff Works I fine
Speaker 1: app has arrived down at it today on iTunes